Where does Halloween come from? The name Halloween comes from All Hallows' Eve, often pronounced as All Hallow e'en. This is the evening before All Saints' Day (November 1), also known as Allhallowmas. So Halloween has nothing to do with "Hell", as "Hallow" means "Holy one" or "Saint". Allhallowmas was established by the Christian Church in the A.D. 800's. They did this because the "pagan" Celts celebrated the new year on November 1 and this way they could continue to celebrate this day as "Christians" (much like what happened to the "Christmas"-holidays). So Halloween has a Celtic origin. About 2500 years ago, the Celts (so named by Greek writers) ruled most of Europe, but were pushed back by the vandals and romans to the far west-north-west of Europe: Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall (in the south-west of England), Brittany (in the north-west of France) and Galicia (in the north-west of Spain). In Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Brittany, a lot of people speak a Celtic language: Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Breton. It is believed that this Allhallowmas was based on the Celtic fire festival of "Samhain" (pronounced "sow-ain" with "sow" rhyming with cow), the October 31 feast celebrating the end of summer, the end of the year. It is said that the Druids, a learned, priestly class among the ancient Celts, lit fires to keep away the unwanted guests, the spirits of the dead, who returned for the night. Read here the rest of the history... Today, Halloween is a festival that takes place on October 31. In the USA, children wear costumes on Halloween and go trick-or-treating. Many carve jack-o'-lanterns out of pumpkins. Halloween parties feature such activities as fortunetelling, storytelling about ghosts and witches, and bobbing for apples. In Ireland and the rest of Europe, Halloween usually features dressing up, parades and going to the "Irish Pub". The largest Halloween parade is in New York, this year for the 35th time. In fact, they have a "halloweek", with events all over the city, mostly commercial and often hardly related... Halloween links: Please bear in mind, that if you choose to research Halloween and Celtic customs using the internet, that you will come across many pages which are written either from "tv show level", or, for the more "in-depth" pages, from "Wiccan" or from "Christian" views. Much of this can be woefully inaccurate and poorly researched. Be prepared to find tons and tons of links going down from just these three...
Halloween history History of Halloween So, it is said that the Druids lit fires to keep away the spirits of the dead. Unfortunately, in fact, we know very little of the druids. There is comparatively little trace -besides the folklore of the peasantry- of the religion of the Druids now discoverable, and the references relative to it that occur in ancient and authentic Irish manuscripts are, as far as present appearances go, meagre and insufficient to support anything like a sound theory for full development of the ancient religion. The Druids passed on their teachings by oral tradition instead of committing them to writing, so when they perished, most of their religious teachings were lost. Amongst others, Christians claim that Samhain was the Celtic lord of death, who allowed the souls of the dead to return to their earthly homes for this evening. However, contrary to the information published by many organizations, there is no archaeological or literary evidence to indicate that Samhain was a deity. The Celtic Gods of the dead were Gwynn ap Nudd for the British, and Arawn for the Welsh. The Irish did not have a "lord of death" as such. The Irish Texts Society's Irish English dictionary defines the word as follows: "Samhain, All Hallowtide, the feast of the dead in Pagan and Christian times, signalizing the close of harvest and the initiation of the winter season, lasting till May, during which troops (esp. the Fiann) were quartered. Faeries were imagined as particularly active at this season. From it the half year is reckoned. Also called Feile Moingfinne (Snow Goddess). The Scottish Gaelic Dictionary defines it as "Hallowtide. The Feast of All Soula. Sam + Fuin = end of summer." The end of summer was significant to the Celts because it meant the time of year when the structure of their lives changed radically. The cattle were brought down from the summer pastures in the hills and the people were gathered into the houses for the long winter nights of story-telling and handicrafts. Samhain was the final harvest of the year. Anything left on the vines or in the fields after this date was considered blasted by the fairies, or "pu'ka", and unfit for human consumption. So what does it have to do with a festival of the dead? The Celts believed that when people died, they went to a land of eternal youth and happiness called Tir nan Og. They did not have the concept of heaven and hell that the Christian church later brought into the land. The dead were sometimes believed to be dwelling with the Fairy Folk, who lived in the numerous mounds or sidhe (pronounced "shee") that dotted the Irish and Scottish countryside. Samhain was the new year to the Celts. In the Celtic belief system, turning points, such as the time between one day and the next, the meeting of sea and shore, or the turning of one year into the next were seen as magical times. The turning of the year was the most potent of these times. This was the time when the "veil between the worlds" was at its thinnest, and the living could communicate with their beloved dead in Tir nan Og. And what about the aspects of "evil" that we associate with the night today? The Celts did not have demons and devils in their belief system. The fairies, however, were often considered hostile and dangerous to humans because they were seen as being resentful of men taking over their lands. On this night, they would sometimes trick humans into becoming lost in the fairy mounds, where they would be trapped forever. After the coming of the Christians to the Celtic lands, certain of the folk saw the fairies as those angels who had sided neither with God nor with Lucifer in their dispute, and thus, were condemned to walk the earth until judgement day. In addition to the fairies, many humans were abroad on this night, causing mischief. Since this night belonged neither to one year or the other, Celtic folk believed that chaos reigned and the people would engage in "horseplay and practical jokes". This served also as a final outlet for high spirits before the gloom of winter set in. During the course of these hijinks, many of the people would imitate the fairies and go from house to house begging for treats. Failure to supply the treats would usually result in practical jokes being visited on the people living in that home ("trick-or-treat"). Since the fairies were abroad on this night, an offering of food or milk was frequently left for them on the steps of the house, so the people living there could gain the blessings of the "good folk" for the coming year. Many of the households would also leave out a "dumb supper" for the spirits of the departed. It is said that the folks who were abroad in the night, imitating the fairies, would sometimes carry turnips carved to represent faces, supposedly being the origin of our modern Jack-o'-lantern. In fact, the pagans had a custom of carrying a light to ward off evil spirits. In Ireland, candles had been placed in carved out potatoes, turnips or beets, to make "jack-o'-lanterns". But in America, pumpkins were plentiful, and it was the light shining from them that told marauding spirits: hit the road, Jack. So the lit "face" was probably both for mimicking as scaring away spirits! In the 1840s there were many Irish immigrants to the USA, who brought this custom with them. Samhain was however also a religious festival. In effect, Celtic religion was very closely tied to the Earth. Their great legends are concerned with momentous happenings which took place around the time of Samhain. Many of the great battles and legends of kings and heroes center on this night. Many of the legends concern the promotion of fertility of the earth and the insurance of the continuance of the lives of the people through the dark winter season. Samhain was characterized as one of the four great "Fire Festivals" of the Celts. Legends tell us that on this night, all the hearth fires in Ireland were extinguished, and then re-lit from the central fire of the Druids at Tlachtga, 12 miles from the royal hill of Tara. This fire was kindled from "need fire" which had been generated by the friction of rubbing two sticks together as opposed to more conventional methods common in those days. The extinguishing of the fires symbolized the "dark half" of the year, and the re-kindling from the Druidic fires was symbolic of the returning life hoped for, and brought about through the ministrations of the priesthood. On the evening of the festival, the Druids may have ordered the people to put out their hearth fires. The Druids built a huge new year's bonfire of oak branches, which they considered sacred. They burned animals, crops, and some believe possibly even human beings as sacrifices. Then each family relit its hearth fire from the new year's fire. During the celebration, people sometimes wore costumes made of animal heads and skins. They told fortunes about the coming year by examining the remains of the animals that had been sacrificed. What about sacrifices? Animals were certainly killed at this time of year. This was the time to "cull" from the herds those animals which were not desired for breeding purposes for the next year. Most certainly, some of these would have been done in a ritualistic manner for the use of the priesthood. Scholars are sharply divided on the matter whether or not humans were sacrificed, with about half believing that it took place and half doubting its veracity. Caesar and Tacitus certainly tell tales of the human sacrifices of the Celts, but Nora Chadwick points out in her book "The Celts" that "it is not without interest that the Romans themselves had abolished human sacrifices not long before Caesar's time, and references to the practice among various barbarian peoples have certain overtones of self-righteousness. There is little direct archaeological evidence relevant to Celtic sacrifice." Indeed, there is little reference to this practice in Celtic literature either. The only surviving story echoes the story of the Minotaur in Greek legend. The Fomorians, a race of evil giants said to inhabit portions of Ireland before the coming of the Tuatha de Danaan, or "people of the Goddess Danu", demanded the sacrifice of 2/3 of the corn, milk, and first born children of the Fir Bolg, or human inhabitants of Ireland. The De Danaan ended this practice in the second battle of Moy Tura, which incidentally took place on Samhain. Also other practices were associated with this season. Folk tradition tells us of many divination practices associated with Samhain. Among the most common were divinations dealing with marriage, weather, and the coming fortunes for the year. These were performed via such methods as ducking for apples, and apple peeling. Ducking for apples was a marriage divination. The first person to bite an apple would be the first to marry in the coming year. Apple peeling was a divination to see how long your life would be. The longer the unbroken apple peel, the longer your life was destined to be. In Scotland, people would place stones in the ashes of the hearth before retiring for the night. Anyone whose stone had been disturbed during the night was said to be destined to die during the coming year. Even today, many "followers" of various pagan religions, such as Druids and Wiccans, celebrate Samhain as a religious festival. They view it as a memorial day for their dead friends, similar to the national holiday of Memorial Day in May in the USA. It is still a night to practice various forms of divination concerning future events. Also, it is considered a time to wrap up old projects, take stock of ones life, and initiate new projects for the coming year. As the winter season is approaching, it is a good time to do studying on research projects and also a good time to begin hand work such as sewing, leather working, woodworking, etc. for Yule gifts later in the year. Fortunately, this does not involve human or animal sacrifice! Hollywood to the contrary, blood sacrifice is not practiced by modern day "followers" of Wicca or Druidism. There may be some people who think they are practicing Wicca by performing blood sacrifices, but this is certainly not condoned by reputable practitioners of the modern day Pagan religions. As a matter of fact, about half the "rituals" the so-called modern "druids" perform today, are either out of place, or out of time... A classic Halloween joke: "A Bloody Nose" A vampire bat came flapping in from the night covered in fresh blood and parked himself on the roof of the cave to get some sleep. Pretty soon all the other bats smelt the blood and began hassling him about where he got it. He told them to go away and let him get some sleep. However, the bats persisted until finally he gave in. "OK, follow me," he said and flew out of the cave with hundreds of bats behind him. Down through a valley they went, across a river and into a forest full of trees. Finally he slowed down and all the other bats excitedly milled around him. "Now, do you see that tree over there?" he asked. "Yes, yes, yes!" the bats all screamed in a hungry frenzy. "Good," said the first bat tiredly, "Because I didn't!" |
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